ABC to offer live video from Oscars

Think of it as “Oscars After Dark.”

In a move that combines society’s obsession over celebrities with the Internet’s enabling of webcam voyeurism, viewers of Sunday’s 83rd Academy Awards for the first time will get the kind of access – for a price – previously reserved for tuxedoed and bejeweled members of the Hollywood elite.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC are unhooking the velvet rope on the Oscar.com website to provide live video streams of usually hidden aspects of Oscar night, including celebrities mingling at a lobby bar, hair and makeup artists applying a final gloss to presenters before they take the stage, and awards winners gliding into the post-ceremony celebration, the Governors Ball.

The academy and ABC will charge $4.99 for the “All Access” feature, which provides live feeds from 28 cameras positioned on the red carpet, inside the Kodak Theatre and backstage, as well as at the ball.

It’s an effort by the academy to hold the attention of a nation of dedicated multi-taskers, three-quarters of whom are either online, yakking on phones or sending text messages while watching television, according to a new survey from Deloitte’s media and entertainment group.

“We all know that more and more people who are watching TV are also engaging with some other devices – whether a computer or an iPad or a smartphone,” said Ric Robertson, the motion picture academy’s executive administrator. “So, what can we serve up to them to keep them engaged with the telecast, to provide a complementary experience?”